New Girl: Mistake or Savior?
by natalie.grey
Summary: Kate Burnett is a normal girl. She has a crush on her older brother's best friend, hopes for high school, and a family more intact than most. But when she's thrown into a world of gods and monsters, and falls for a certain son of Hades, she finds out that her world, and she herself, are far less simple than she thought. (rated T because I'm new and slightly paranoid) Reviews help!
1. Chapter 1

It was only February, but it felt like spring in the way it sometimes does when the sun shines warm on your hair and the sky burns sapphire blue. Tony and I sat on the limp, brownish grass. I was petting Sally, our husky with one foot and trying to french braid his short, black hair when he looked up at me, shaking the plait loose. "Don't you wish we could get out of here?"

"Get out of here how?" I asked my brother. He twirled a blade of grass between his fingers and his brown-green eyes looked thoughtful. With his tan skin and athletic figure, he was much taller than me and two years older. The kids in his class thought he was Hispanic until they realized he was related to me: Katelyn Burnett, the pale, freckly sixth grader with that mane of red hair and weird, dark blue eyes.

That was two years ago, and now Tony belonged to a small homeschool group that met once a week. I had one year left at Lewis and Clark, the tiny public school, grades one through eight, with an entire population about half the size of the freshman class at the main high school. I missed Anthony during the day, but these walks to the park with Sally made up for it.

"Oh, you know," Tony said. "A mystery to solve would be nice. Or one of us could even get kidnapped. Anything, I guess."

I smiled that he included me in his musings. "So long as you're the one who gets kidnapped," I joked. But I knew what he meant. Our tiny town in the middle of Oregon was sorely lacking any kind of adventure.

"So, I'll get kidnapped, and you'll come after my captors with what? A book?" My brother hardly ever teased me for my bookworm tendencies, and today I knew it was a friendly sort of teasing.

"With my epic ninja skills, of course!" He smiled, and I laughed, and he grabbed the dog's leash and we headed home.

* * *

"Okay, okay, focus!" I scolded myself. I closed the YouTube tab on my leptop screen and clicked on the online algebra book. Our school gave the eighth graders both an algebra and typical math class, a homework pile which induced in more than a few headaches during the week. I rubbed my temples, put my iPod on shuffle, and forced myself to struggle through the last six problems.

I glanced at the clock. "Emily, Mom says you can come down now!"

Immediately, little footsteps began to patter above me and then I heard her come down the stairs. I went to the hall and stepped into a Kodak moment.

Emmy, five years old and the most adorable thing you've ever seen, stood on the second step to the bottom. She held her teddy bear by the foot with one hand and rubbed an eye with the other.

I picked her up and spun. Her bright blond hair swung by her shoulders, and her eyes were a deep, chocolate brown. Neither of us looked like Silas, who had brown hair and blue eyes, or Eliza, who more resembled Tony than any of the rest of us. "How was your nap?"

"Fine."

"Did you sleep at all?"

My little sister nodded earnestly. "Where's Mama?" she asked.

"She went on a long run. She'll be back in forty-five minutes, she said."

"How long is that?"

"Two VeggieTales episodes," I explained, grinning.

"Ooohhh," Emily said, "where are the boys?"

"Tony went to go get groceries, and Silas's at the park." I sighed. Tony, who'd just turned sixteen and got his driver's license, had offered to take me with him, but I'd opted to finish my homework before youth group. Plus, we couldn't leave Emmy alone.

I set Emily down on the kitchen floor and got her a glass of milk. "So, goosie. It's just us chickens. What'll it be for supper, hm?"

"Quesadillas!" She pronounced it 'kay-sa-dill-ahs' like she always did, and I ruffled her hair like I always did.

I put on some music and danced around the kitchen, getting out ingredients while Emily set herself up with a puzzle. I chuckled to imagine how ridiculous I must look, wearing my dad's huge sweatshirt that smelled like coffee and my bright tie-dyed shorts, using a salt shaker as a microphone. But the window blinds were closed, and my little sister was used to my antics, so I didn't care.

I was in the middle of unloading the dishwasher, Emily sitting at the table with a quesadilla and some hastily sliced apples when I heard a knock on the door. I grinned. Maybe it was Paul Junior on his way back from track practice. He usually stopped by on the way to his house for a few minutes of conversation. He was my brother's friend, but Tony tended to be gone when Paul came around, so I was the one who made small talk in the doorway. I wondered sometimes if Paul came when my brother was out on purpose.

I looked in the hallway mirror and fixed my hair, grasping the handle for a moment, ready to say "hey, stranger," which always made him smile, but when I opened the door it wasn't Paul after all. Instead, an elderly man stood on my doorstep.

His skin was so pale it looked a transparent gray, spotted with age. He had to be two feet taller than me, but his place at the foot of the steps put our eyes at about the same level. His were colorless, almost the same grey as his complexion. His clothes were completely grey, so I could hardly tell fabric from skin. He smelled strongly of smoke.

I smiled hesitantly. My mom told me to be polite to my elders, but old people always made me nervous, with their fragile hands I had to shake and their advice that made me squirm. And he was staring intently at me, his head slightly tilted.

I got ready to close the door at a moment's notice. "Can I help you, sir?"

He said nothing, just tilted his head some more to the side and then I start to realize things. Like the fact that his face wasn't an old man's anymore, but a muzzle, with burning red eyes set low above it. Like how the thing was towering over me on muscular legs, on all fours, like a dog. How it made a noise like a growl and threw itself at the doorway. I slammed the door shut and clicked the lock with trembling fingers.

I heard a whimper and I gasped. Emily stood behind me, her chubby hands covering her eyes. I dropped to a crouch and hugged her, gathering her into my arms like I had a million times when nightmares scared her down to my room or a knee scrape pushed tears onto those precious cheeks.

"It's okay, it's okay, it's fine. You're fine, I'm fine, we're fine. Anthony is going to come home soon, and Silas is probably on his way home from the park, and then we can play hide-and-seek, okay? You can be on my team if you want," I mumbled into her hair. Knowing she needed me helped me keep my cool. She was still shaking and I hoisted her onto my hip and carried her to my room, locking my door behind us.

We crouched on the floor of my bedroom for what felt like hours, until Emily shifted to walk to the door. There were new sounds of commotion outside, shouts and clangs and I could hardly imagine what was going on. I glanced at Emily. "Lock yourself in," I said. "I'm going to go take a look."

She grabbed my legs. "No!" Tears started to rush again, and I sighed.

I kept my tone light, as though nothing was wrong at all. "It's okay, honey, I'll be back in three seconds. I'm just going to peek through the mail slot, that's all."

I gently pushed her back into my room and waited until I heard her click the lock. Then I tiptoed into the living room, to the big window facing our front yard. And what I saw almost made me scream again.

* * *

**Okay, so I know I haven't even introduced Nico yet, but I felt like most first chapters rush through the beginning process, and I didn't want to do that. Also, I thought right here was a good place to end the first part. I don't exactly know when I'll update, but I have big plans for this story! So please, please help me out and stay with me. :)**

**Oh, and please review. I'll appreciate any constructive criticism. Thanks!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I guess I should probably have said this in the first chapter, but I don't own the Percy Jackson series. Maybe that's a good thing, because if I did it'd be a lot less amazing and a lot more sappy. **

* * *

My front yard holds so many memories. My brothers and I used to play 'front yard baseball' with 'bases' on the four corners of the yard. We met our dog, Sally, as a clumsy puppy on that grass. One time my cat dragged a baby bat up into the tree and it fell onto Tony's head. Seven years of my family's games and puzzles and picnics can be recalled by just stepping out into the front yard.

But now it looked wrong, like a battlefield. Five teenagers I didn't know stood on one side of the brick path, and that horrible- thing crouched on the other. The kids were an odd jumble of t-shirts and swords, blue jeans and shields. One girl, with jet black hair, was wearing a skirt and leggings and held a javelin in her left hand.

As I stood, shocked and frozen by the window, a blond girl ran forward to jab at the beast, but her blade passed through the thing like it was made of smoke. It batted at her and she flew backward, landing in the bushes in front of the window. One of the boys, with red hair like mine, ran to help her and saw me. His bright blue eyes grew wide, and he turned to his friends. His mouth moved and he pointed at me through the glass.

The black-haired girl motioned for him to join the battle, and came over to look through the glass and frown. I was reminded of a zoo animal, sitting motionless and watching visitors come to stare, wide-mouthed and tap the glass.

The black-haired girl pointed toward the front door, and I ran to the mail slot. Her dark eyes appeared and she asked in a calm voice, "who are you?"

"Kate."

"And you're a half-blood? The message we got said the resident of this house was ready to be taken to camp."

"What?"

Her eyes widened as another growl echoed through the neighborhood. "Is there anybody else in the house with you?"

"Yeah, my baby sister. Why?"

She turned to look at her companions and when her gaze came back to me she looked troubled. "Tell your sister to stay in the house-" she began.

"She locked herself in my room."

"Good." The girl hesitated, biting her lip. Then her features smoothed, as if she had come to a decision. "And we need you to come outside."

"You're insane," I announced, maybe a bit more loudly than necessary.

The redhead boy's face came into my vision, pushing the girl's head out of the way long enough to say, "of course we are! How else did you think we've stayed alive this long?"

The black-haired girl muttered something and pushed him out of the way. "Just trust us," she said. "We've done this before." And with that, she was gone.

I stayed there, squatting with my eyes level to the mail slot, my thoughts buzzing. What was going on? What about Emily? What was that thing? Who were they? What camp were they talking about?

I raced to my room to yell, "stay in there!" to Emily. I'm insane, too, I thought as I turned off the stove (safety first!), impulsively grabbed the short, sharp knife Mom used for cutting vegetables, tucked it under my belt, and opened the door.

Without a pane of glass between me and the battle, the teenagers' fighting looked far more desperate. A buff, blond guy was crouched over the blond girl, muttering. The redhead boy and the black-haired leader were in a huddle, eyeing the beast. Their foreheads were tense, their words hushed.

Another girl stood between the two pairs. Her hair was brown, and her olive skin was perfectly smooth. She stood with her hands folded at her waist, and at the moment seemed the safest to approach. I joined her at the edge of the teenagers' territory, watching the beast growl and paw at the ground. I frowned, imagining what my mother was going to do when she saw the state of the yard. She should be home sometime soon, I realized. What would happen then? I pushed the thought out of my head and asked the brown-haired girl, "so what's your name? And what is that thing?"

She turned to me, not startled at all. "Angela. And we have no idea," she said.

"Your friend said you'd done this before!"

"We have. We've fought hundreds of monsters, and known them all by name. But this-" she gestured toward the grey dog with a sweep of her arm. She frowned, and she sounded frustrated. "-we've never seen anything like this."

I nodded, unable to do anything else. Finally I stammered, "why did your friend have me come outside?"

She frowned. "Monique's smart. If you'd been alone in the house, she would've had you stay inside at all costs. But since there's a little kid involved, the safest thing for both of you is her in there and you out here with us."

"Why?" I struggled to understand her perspective. I should be with my sister, not as far away as possible.

She gave me a look, and her expression softened. "Because the monster came after you."

I blinked. "What do you mean? That I'm putting my sister in danger? Do you know how-"

She held her hands up in an 'I am innocent!' way, and almost smiled. "Let me rephrase that. The-"

But Angela didn't get to explain. The monster, seeming to have grown bored, caught sight of me. It growled and advanced, stepping over the brick path. George was in front of me in two seconds, his blade drawn and his eyes strangely serious. "Don't you know it's wrong to hit a girl?" I frowned, confused until I realized the words were aimed at the monster, who snarled and retreated. But not far.

"Hey, Mon, how's it going?" George risked a look back at the girl Monique, who was fumbling in her backpack.

"So, what happens now?" I asked Angela.

She stared straight ahead as she spoke, "well, whatever plan she's cooking up-" she nodded at the darker-haired girl "-works, we get away and the minimum amount of people die."

"Annnnnd- if it doesn't work? What if she doesn't have a plan?"

"Then we all die."

Jack, who had stood and come to stand behind us, turned and called to the leader, "Monique? What are these kids saying about you not having a plan?"

"Working on it, Jack," she fired back, annoyed. "Got it!" she shouted. She held up a tiny scrap of paper, and when George saw it he relaxed a bit. "Well, what are you waiting for," he asked her.

She didn't answer, just started writing feverishly.

I leaned toward Angela and muttered, "sending a messenger pigeon for help?"

She sniggered. "Let's hope not." I started to laugh far harder than I would have, had the situation not been completely un-laugh-worthy. Soon the both of us were cracking up, our stomachs cramping and giggles hysterical. Both of the boys looked at us like we were crazy, and I snorted, and Angela laughed harder.

"Okay, George!" Monique's voice called from behind us. We looked back just in time to see the black-haired girl stick the piece of paper to her shirt and right before the dog swung his skeletal head around to face her, she disappeared and was replaced by a small deer.

I watched, stunned, as Monique the Deer darted back and forth, going in to snap at his ear or fore paw, then out of reach before the monster could retaliate. She was beautiful and cunning, until she tripped. On a banana peel that lay on the sidewalk. For the tiniest moment I forgot that that was Monique, and I briefly wished for a camera. That video would be totally AFV-worthy.

The deer went down and the dog clamped his jaws onto her shoulder. I heard a sickening crunch, and a piece of paper fell off the doe's white chest. Monique, in human form again, crumpled to the ground and cried out in pain. "Monique!" Jack yelled, and sprinted over to the fallen girl. The monster turned on the boy and growled.

Jack reached the paper before the monster did. He backed away, looking at it, then gasped. "George, toss me a pen!"

The redhead was trying to drag Monique away from the dog, and yelled back, "Why the- why would I have a pen?!"

Jack dug through his pockets. "You said that you always-ever since you thought you saw Britney Spears walking down the street and- found one!" He scribbled on the piece of paper, then ran over to Angela and I. She handed it to (of all people) me and said, "put it on! Hurry!"

Surprised, I looked at the paper. I was disappointed to see it was one of those 'Hello, my name is:' stickers. In the empty space, almost illegible writing spelled out Monique Amber. "What the heck?!" I exclaimed, but Jack gasped, "no time!" and stuck the sticker to the front of my shirt.

I felt the change almost instantly. My hair grew thin and straight. The muscles on my arms bulged and suddenly, I looked at my hands and they were far browner than my normal pinkish hue. "I'm-" But I didn't finish, because my voice wasn't mine. I'm Monique.

* * *

Okay. A little more action in that one. I hope to finish another chapter today, but that might just be wishful thinking. ;) Anyway, thanks so much for reading, and please review! I appreciate you all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay, so I didn't get another one up yesterday, but this one's a bit longer in result. I don't want to go too slow, so let me know if I have to speed it up. I'm writing this so other people can enjoy it, after all.**

**So anyway, I don't own the Percy Jackson series, otherwise Nico would get a lot more action and a lot more girls, since he's my favorite. I know I haven't introduced him yet, but hang in there! All in good time. :)**

* * *

Jack nodded. "Yeah, yeah, it's amazing. Now-"

I interrupted him, pointed a thumb at myself. I was about to sound stupid and selfish and heartless, but at the moment I didn't care. "What happened to 'plan:protect Katelyn and Emily'?"

Sure enough, Jack glared. "Yeah," he growled, "but my friend is hurt, and we're going to save her." He pushed me toward the monster. "And you're the distraction."

Looking back at it, it was a brilliant, if half-baked, plan. The hellhound was immediately confused by the two dark-skinned girls, one on the ground and one about to charge him. Or, that's how Jack wished it was, I'm sure. In reality, he had to force me toward the monster and even then I hardly "charged". More like cowered in terror.

I looked closer at the beast. I hadn't had the opportunity to actually study him. He was huge, but almost skeletal in his thinness. He reminded me of the two Great Danes from the house across the street, who you could see lazing around on the grass any summer's day. Only those dogs, who towered over their owners' kids, could be puppies compared to this brute. I was tempted to laugh, but the chuckle was scared out of me by another growl and Jack shouting, "keep him occupied!" So I shook all thoughts out of my head, accepted that I was going completely crazy, and tried to get the thing's attention. My legs shook in Monique's combat boots.

I ran into a problem pretty quickly. As soon as the dog noticed that my heart wasn't in it, he stopped bugging me and wandered off to find another target. Which would've been fine, if his next target hadn't been Angela.

I don't know why, but in the short time I'd known these five, Angela was the one I'd decided to trust. She hadn't looked at me like I was a bomb that was just waiting to blow up at any moment, or a stupid kid who was only there because she'd brought a monster to kill them all.

She was caring for the blond girl, who'd sat up, but still looked pretty shaky. Angela was faced away from the fight, and had no idea that the monster was only a few feet away.

I knew I couldn't do anything. The knife I had grabbed was weaker than a Nerf sword compared to the weapons Jack, Angela, and George were carrying. But I got it out of my belt anyway, and ran between the dog and my friends- did I really consider them my friends? I realized I did.

I pointed away, down the street, and glared at the beast. When I spoke, my voice echoed through the neighborhood, sounding much braver than I felt. I don't know what I planned to say, but it was definitely not what came out.

"Go. Away," I said in a firm voice, as if I were talking to an annoying pet or a troublesome little sibling.

I heard George mutter behind me, "what is she doing?" Then the dog tilted his head.

His snout shrunk into a long nose. The fur disappeared, and in a few seconds I was facing the tall, completely grey man from earlier today. He tilted his head, and gave me a long look. Then, slowly, he turned the direction I had pointed and walked away. I shuddered, and all six of us watched the man stroll down the street, around the corner, and out of sight.

I took a deep breath, then turned to look back at the others. Their expressions ranged from bewilderment to amazement to indignation. Monique, standing now with her arms crossed, studied me with stormy eyes. George's jaw had dropped almost to his toes, and Angela's eyes were wide, her mouth slightly less agape than the boy's beside her.

"What?" I asked, and was jarred again by hearing Monique's voice come out of my mouth.

Sick of the confusion, I took off the nametag, and felt my hair frizz and my arms droop with fatigue. It took under two seconds for me to go from Monique to Katelyn again, still wearing my dad's sweater. George walked over to me, stopping just out of my reach. "How did you do that?" he whispered.

I didn't want them to see me cry, and to disguise the choked sob that escaped me, I ran inside and knocked frantically on my door. For a terrifying moment there was nothing, then I heard the lock click and pulled Emily up into my arms.

Millions of excuses flashed through my head. This was a dream. That was the only reasonable explanation. I was about to wake up, laying on the floor and helping Emily with her puzzle. Anthony would be home soon, and Silas would try to steal my phone, and Dad would come in with I had dozed off- right, that was it. God, that's cliche.

But even that couldn't fully satisfy my brain. I had seen all that. I-I had done some of it.

I didn't go outside, not sure if I could face them again, not sure if I could face anything. But in a few minutes, Angela came into my house, glancing around at my mother's carefully decorated living room. She looked down from the collage of color-by-number paintings on the wall, and picked up my brother's guitar. "Who plays?" she asked.

"Tony," I said. She raised an eyebrow, and I bit my lip. "My brother," I said. "He's getting groceries. He should be back any minute."

"So is he a half-blood, too?" she asked.

I looked at her. "A what? Is that some sort of racist-"

She shook her head. "Never mind," she said. I nodded and carried Emily into the kitchen. Sitting her on the counter, I put the lid on the beans and carried the container to the fridge. Angela watched me for a minute, then she picked up the jug of milk off the counter and put that in the fridge, too.

I'm not OCD or anything, but when I'm stressed I default to chores. Having something to do that required moving around and not much brain power helped me think. My parents used to joke that all they had to do was leave me in the kitchen and argue for a while, and the chores would be done in ten minutes. Once, when my dad was lecturing Anthony about his bad attitude, I cleaned the entire kitchen and started dinner.

So Angela and I finished unloading and loading the dishwasher. Without one word, I stood by the sink and rinsed dishes while she took them from me to put them in. She arranged them better than I ever did, I noticed, and I was reminded of my mom.

After a while Angela started to talk. She didn't say anything about the grey dog, or George or me. She told me about her dad, and her brothers. She recounted a funny story about her dog shaking hands with a visitor without being told. She told me about her life with her family, when she was little.

"Then I was attacked by a hellhound," she said in a slower voice, taking a pan out of my wet hands. "My satyr tried to protect me, but he was pretty young and I had to help him. Together, we drove it away and got to camp. Monique had been there a year already. Jill, the blond girl, she came the next year."

I didn't understand a word she said, but I listened to her even voice and calmed a little bit. I cut an apple for Emily and offered Angela a slice. She took it and kept talking.

She started to explain about the 'camp'. Kids went there, she said, who were special. The children of gods. She talked about Athena and Hades. She said that Jill was a daughter of Aphrodite, and Monique's dad was Apollo. I recognized the names from stories in one of our old literature books, about the Greek gods, but I didn't think much of it. She said Camp Half-Blood, as it was called, was where demigods ("the children of one god and one human," explained Angela) went to train to survive.

The dishes were done, the counters washed, and I had started to tune back in when Angela said, "you'd like the archery range, I think."

"Wait, what? Since when am I going to this camp?"

She frowned. "Have you been listening to anything I've been saying?"

"Only sort of," I admitted.

She groaned and started over, speaking slowly. "Homes are set up in little towns, where people take care of potential half-bloods until they're old enough to go to camp. It's a system to try and keep the kids safe at a younger age. It's often hard to tell, and most of the time they might be grandchildren of a demigod, or even just a normal kid. Most of the time it's a false alarm."

She straightened a magnet on the fridge. "When the camp gets a message from one of these homes," she continued, "they send out a team to collect the half-blood. Sometimes they're successful. They get the kid, and take them to camp before a monster finds them. It's really nice when this happens, but it doesn't always happen. In most cases, like this one, we get there too late and a monster has already arrived."

She looked at me warily. "But I have never seen anything like what just happened. Usually the person we're trying to rescue cowers in a corner, or runs away."

"So what are you saying?" I asked, still confused.

She sighed exasperation. "Are you always this clueless?"

"No," I said, defensively, I'll admit. "You should meet Anthony. He's the real slow one." Thinking of Tony gives me an idea, and part of what she's saying starts to click. "So, is Tony the person you came looking for?"

She shook her head. "No. We got a call about a girl. We know that much."

"But-"

"And what you just did now is total confirmation. You have to come with us."

I blinked. "But it's not me! I'm not the kid of a god, which is crazy anyway. I have a mom and dad! I have a family."

"Who you look nothing like, right?"

I stared at her.

"And weird things have been going on around you ever since you were little? You have ADHD or dyslexia?"

Here I could get her. "Neither," I protested.

"Hm. Most do. But the rest of my points still stand. You were protected ever since you were little from the bad stuff, so it's not as obvious to you as to us." Was I crazy, or did she sound jealous?

"But that doesn't make it not true," Angela continued. "You're a half-blood, and now that they know you are, you don't have an option to accept."

* * *

**I really didn't want to have Angela explain the gods and everything, since anyone reading this will know about all that, so I tried to shorten it.**

**I'm having so much fun with this story (probably too much fun, since I'm working on it instead of my homework- I really know how to utilize my time, don't I?), and I really hope you're enjoying it, too. I know it isn't very exciting yet, but I don't want to rush.**

**Anyway, thanks for reading, and please review! Any feedback really makes me smile.**

**-natalie.**


	4. Chapter 4

**I don't own Percy Jackson. If I did, I'd be a better writer, and I wouldn't run out of funny things to say after the disclaimers. *grin***

**Please keep in mind that most of this is completely unedited, so if it rambles, I'm sorry.**

"You're a half-blood, and now that they know you are, you don't have an option to accept."

Angela looked regretful, as though she didn't want the words to be true. I could tell she spoke from experience, and for the first moment I believed that maybe what she said was true.

It was insane. Kids of gods and humans? Monsters? Olympic gods and things of myth in the world- "We would have noticed," I realized. "If those things were in the real world, we would have noticed," I repeated.

Angela smiled grimly, pulling herself up to sit by Emily on the counter. I joined them, my head resting on the glass cupboard doors. "Yeah, that's the hardest part. Makes it a bit difficult to prove it." She continued to explain about the Mist. It obscured all the 'unexplainable' happenings of the real world from mortals' eyes. "One reason why you might not have seen strange things. Even though you're one of us, it affects ignorant half-bloods too."

"I'm not ignorant!"

"Yeah, not anymore." Her expression went serious, and she leaned toward me. "You get it, though, don't you? Why you had to leave Emily in the house, and why you have to leave now."

I bit my lip. "Yeah, I get it. If what you say is true-"

"-Which it is," Angela insisted. "You'll see when you get to camp."

"If what you say is true," I repeated, "then I'm just putting my family in more danger." I looked at Angela. "What about Anthony? Or Silas or Liza? Are any of them- like you say I am?"

She pursed her lips. "We don't know until we get a call. Sometimes the people who set up the homes take in a few kids to further disguise the actual half-bloods. Maybe these are your siblings."

"But- they might be like me, right? I mean, if I'm what you say I am." I realized I was trying to sound like I didn't believe her, but my attempts seemed weak, even to my own ears. Did I actually believe this crazy story?

Angela frowned and tickled Emily's foot absently. My baby sister squealed happily, and Angela managed a half smile. "Maybe," she said, drawing the word long. "But your brother definitely isn't."

I looked at her.

"The one that's older than you. We get calls about half-blood potentials between the ages of twelve and fourteen. Your brother's still here, so-"

By this time my head was in my hands. "Yeah, yeah. He can't be like me."

Ever since I was old enough to walk, Anthony and I had done things at the same time. We'd gone everywhere together. When Silas got old enough to want to have his brother to himself, Tony and I still spent hours in his room or mine, talking the night away. Even when Dad let him read a book series, but not me, Anthony read chapters to me until I was allowed. And now... "He's gonna hate me for leaving without him," I told Angela, frustrated to find myself crying.

"Hey, it's okay." The other girl put her hand on my shoulder, her eyes softened. "Most campers go home for the school year. Maybe you could come back here."

"But they aren't my family. They're not my parents! He's-" I choked on a sob. I imagined what a wreck I looked to Angela, tear-streaked face and huge sweater. I hadn't even put on makeup today. "He's not my brother," I forced out.

Angela nodded, and Emily gave me a hug. I squeezed her hand, and looked at the ceiling to dry out my eyes. "Hey, listen," Angela said, "I know your world is kind of falling apart right now. I should know- mine did too, but it's not all bad. Even if the Burnetts aren't blood related to you, they still raised you. You still grew up with Tony and Silas and the others. You're still family, just as much as if you were born that way."

"What if some, or even one of them are like me? Will you take them away, too?"

She shook her head. "We don't recruit little kids from the safe places. If they're safe, and ignorant, it's just as well. There's no need to take them before they can handle it."

"Oh."

"You're disappointed you won't be with your family, aren't you?"

"Yeah." I bit my lip.

"Well, it's not like you're going into a convent. You can still have friends at camp, and they'll all be like you. You'll be in one big family." She didn't.

I glared at her. "Do you know how freaking cliche that is?"

She laughed. "Yeah, I know. I get way too sappy when I'm recruiting."

I cracked a smile and she bumped my shoulder. "Come on," she said, "we should get going."

Emily perked up. "Are we going somewhere, Katy?" she asked me. I looked at Angela and frowned.

She bit her lip, her forehead bunched. "Yeah, I see your point," she said. "We can't just leave her here. I don't know what you did to make that thing go away-"

"I just told it to."

"Yeah, sure. Anyway, we can't be sure it won't come back. I don't think it would hurt her, but still-"

I got an idea. "My little brother is at the park. We could leave her with him and warn him not to come home right away."

Angela nodded, her face serious again. "And we're going to have to tell Mrs. Burnett."

"You can call her my mom," I said. "After all, she brought me up."

Angela smiled and led the way out of the house.

As soon as Emily saw the other kids, she hid behind me, clinging to my leg as if it was the only thing that was keeping her from running inside.

I didn't blame her; I felt like hiding behind a big, safe person too. The whole world looked different, from the blue sky to George's sneakers. How was I to take anything to be real?

The other teenagers looked- I searched for the word. Apprehensive. Jack looked at the sky, and George looked at his shoes. Jill's gaze went everywhere: me and Emily for the barest moment, the grass, the car across the street, her fingernails. Only Monique looked me straight in the eye when I walked out the front door. Her gaze was cold and calculating.

Angela walked in front of me and told Monique, "we need to take the little girl to the park across the street. Her brother's there."

Monique nodded. "Okay," she said, "and then we need to get out of here. We've wasted enough time, and we need to get to New York before tomorrow morning."

My jaw dropped. "New York? That's where we're going?"

"Where did you think it was?" asked Jack, speaking up. "Seattle?"

I didn't answer.

It was a quick trip across the street, and it only took a few minutes to find Silas, make up some story about going to a movie with my friend Lucy, give him the note Monique had written for 'Mom', and get out of there. I looked back at my brother and sister, and wanted to badly to give them a hug and say I loved them, but Monique's instructions had been clear. Act natural, and leave explanations to Mrs. Burnett.

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**This one felt short. I'll write more soon, maybe today.**

**I hope you guys feel grateful. I'll probably be up late doing homework but hey, it's worth it. I'd rather write anyway.**

**Thanks for the reviews! They really make me smile. You guys are almost being too nice- criticize a bit, would ya? ;)**

**-natalie.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay, prepare for some major shark-jumping! I came up with this part when I was fourteen, and decided to put it in, if it is a little far-fetched. **

**I don't own the Percy Jackson series. **

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Half an hour later we were in a van, speeding out of my tiny town. I looked around me at all the stores and corner I'd known since I was small. There was the store where I'd played hide-and-seek with my brother, Paul, and friend Lucy. What about Paul? What would he think when I disappeared? I shook that thought out of my head and faced forward.

Jack was driving. I guessed that the blond boy was seventeen or eighteen. He drove carefully and alertly, not like my older brother. Whenever Anthony drove he sat back, fiddled with the music, and tried to jab Silas or me in the ribs beside him.

I closed my eyes. Thinking about my family was bad, but having not been able to even say good-bye was way, way worse.

Angela touched my arm and smiled a little. I shrugged. "You might want to get some sleep. George asked Hermes to speed us up a bit, but it'll still take a while to get to camp."

I shook my head. I did want to sleep, for reasons Angela wouldn't understand, but not quite yet. "Tell me about camp. Tell me about the gods."

Angela raised her eyebrows. "Funny- it's usually much harder to get a new kid to believe us."

"Well, I've had suspicions," I said. And a little bit of help, I thought.

"Whatever that means. Well, each of the cabins at camp houses the kids of a god."

"Who's your parent?"

She half-smiled, just a facial gesture with no mirth. "She's not a very major goddess. You might not have even heard of her." She put her hands in her lap and examined them, not looking up. "She's Aletheia, the spirit of truth. Being her daughter doesn't make for many powers."

"Which means..."

"A demigod can have certain- powers depending on who their parent is."

"Like, magic?"

She scrunched her eyebrows. "I guess so. We don't know what to call them, really. But anyway, Aletheia as a mom isn't exactly an advantage. I can tell when other people are lying, no matter how good they are. But I also am completely incapable of telling a lie myself."

"Remind me never to play poker with you," I said, trying for a smile. I didn't get one, but Angela's brow smoothed. "George is the son of Hermes. That's the biggest cabin because it takes in all the kids whose parentage we don't know yet."

"That's where I'll go?"

"Yeah. Monique, her dad's Apollo. He's really cool, one of the few gods who I've met."

"You've met Apollo?" When I'd learned about Greek mythology in sixth grade, he'd been one of my favorites second to his twin sister, Artemis.

"Yeah. Last summer we ran into him on a recruiting trip." She leaned toward me and whispered, "and he's hot."

The two of us burst into giggles, and Monique gave us a disapproving look.

"What is her deal?" I asked Angela. "Whenever I say something, she looks like she wants to run me over with a school bus."

Angela sniggered, her hand over her mouth. Once she stopped laughing, she tried to look serious. "Don't be hard on her. Monique's our best recruiter. She comes on almost every single mission, and she spreads herself pretty thin. She got to camp by herself, without a satyr or anything, so she's pretty indignant whenever we pick up a kid from one of the safe places."

I frowned. "Are there really so many monsters out there? I mean, I never noticed any. Couldn't we just hide from them?"

"They're everywhere. They can disguise themselves to lure us in. And they don't find us by seeing. Demigods apparently have a certain scent, and that's how they track us."

I immediately sniffed my sleeve.

She grinned. "We can't smell it. Just the monsters and the satyrs can tell the difference. Also, it's dangerous to carry around a cell phone. It's dangerous- they're like signal flares to all the monsters in the surrounding area."

I thought of the Blackberry and charger I'd stuffed into my bag in the few minutes I'd had to pack, and was suddenly glad I'd insisted on going into the house alone. For a second I worried that Angela was going to ask me if I'd packed a cell phone, and I couldn't lie. But she was looking out the window with a thoughtful look on her face. "Get some sleep. There'll be plenty of time to tell stories at camp." Her face seemed to relax, as though even as I was going away from my home, she was getting closer to hers.

So finally, with nothing else to do, I laid my head against the window and closed my eyes. I guess I was a lot more tired than I'd realized, because I was asleep in moments.

As my vision cleared, I looked around to see I was in a forest. Weird. I've never showed up in a forest before; it had always been a graveyard. Looking around, I briefly took in trees, trees, as far as the eye could see. But then I focused on the one thing of importance: Nico, sitting on a log and looking surprised.

I marched up to him and, by way of a hello, yelled, "Why didn't you tell me?!"

He coughed, and I stood there tapping my foot.

Nico first showed up in my dreams when I was ten. He was eleven years old. I can almost laugh when I remember the first time I saw him, this scrawny kid in his black clothes and pale skin, and the creepy sword he carried. The first night he just sat there and stared at me, and I stood and stared at him, for what felt like an hour, then I woke up.

But the next night he showed up again. I remembered that hour like it was yesterday. He, as the older one, spoke first. "Okay, we're obviously stuck here, so I'm Nico di Angelo. What's your name?"

It was a weird friendship. I suspected that Nico was a product of my overactive imagination, but either way he kept on showing up, every night. I tried to tell my dad about him once, when I was twelve, but all he said was how cute it was that I still had an imaginary friend. And so I never told anybody else about the boy I met in my dreams, though I sometimes retold some of Nico's best stories to Anthony or Silas.

The past six years I'd been almost convinced I was insane, because once in awhile, strange things would happen. One time I told Nico about a boy who'd called me crazy when I won a school poetry contest. The next day, Justin came into class with a black eye, and I thought I saw a black-haired, tall kid wink at me through the window. When I'd asked Nico about it, he just smiled.

Nico told me crazy stories, about fighting monsters and winning victorious battles. I always assumed he made them up, but he was a good storyteller and one hour was a lot of time to kill every single night.

So now I stood there, looking daggers at my best friend, and waiting.

Nico sighed. He nodded slowly, keeping his gaze on the ground. Finally, he let his eyes flick back up to mine, and said, "okay. I think I owe you an explanation."

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**Okay. Now feel free to totally roll your eyes at my cheesiness. But I'll have you know, there's a completely un-corny reason for this. And you'll have to keep on reading to find out what it is, so please don't give up on me for this. :)**

**Please, please review with any ideas, comments, criticisms. And thanks for sticking with me.**

**-natalie.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Thanks to Howlsong12, chocokat01, and jumpingandfalling. You guys are all fantastic, and your reviews really made me smile.**

**Also my utmost gratitude to FranKay97, Lonetear, Rbsoccer11, chocokat01, dallas laczny, and jumpingandfalling for following my story. I hope I won't disappoint you guys. **

**Now even though I should really be doing my algebra, here's another installation (I like that word better than 'chapter').**

**I don't own the Percy Jackson series or any of the characters from that series that I choose to include in this story. The plot, however, is mine, and so are all my original characters. **

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"You think?" My glare was probably a little less threatening since I had to look up at him.

Nico looked at his shoes, and I noted how old he looked. He was only fifteen, but he could have been a senior. His hair was dark and shaggy, cut in a style that I would have called emo if it wasn't Nico. He wore a white t-shirt, black jeans, and the same leather aviator jacket he wore the first time I met him. It nearly fit him now. His eyes were chocolate brown and the most expressive eyes I'd ever seen. His skin used to be olive-toned when we were kids, but lately he'd gotten paler and paler. It was almost pasty white, but in a cute, teenage-zombie sort of way.

He opened his mouth, but I cut him off. "So this is how you dress up to try and make peace?" I asked coldly, gesturing at his t-shirt. I didn't mind it really; it was better than the black that he always wore. It actually gave his skin a little color, but I was willing to turn anything into an argument.

He studied my face for a moment, then blew out a sigh. "Yeah, you're mad."

"So you're not as dumb as you look," I fired back.

Nico almost smiled, then bit his cheek to suppress it. "Okay, sit down and I'll explain."

I plopped down on the log beside him and glared until he spoke.

When we were little, the first thing we did, in the first few weeks of my dreams, was fill each other in about our lives. The thing about being stuck with somebody for an hour is that you end up knowing things nobody else does. He told me all about his family, his problems with his dad and how he had to move from place to place. I told him about my hopes to be a writer or a lawyer, and how I hoped Anthony would get into a good art school and do music. One night he showed up and told me in between sobs that his sister was dead. He cried shamelessly then, his little-boy face buried in his hands and my hand on his shoulder.

Now Nico told me a different story. He started over, telling me about how the three main male gods had made a pact never to have children. And how when Hades fell in love with a mortal and had Nico and his sister, Zeus had killed their mother and forced the god of the Underworld to hide his children.

"You told me your dad was an undertaker!"

He shrugged. "That was the closest to the truth I could get."

"Is your stepmom really a botanist?"

Nico's face looked like he was smelling something awful. "We'll get to her."

My friend went on to explain how some demigods had come to rescue him and his sister from a monster attack, then how his sister had gone on a quest shortly after that.

"It wasn't a car crash that killed her," he told me, struggling to keep a straight face. "Bianca sacrificed herself to save this guy named Percy and his friends. I blamed him for a long time for her death, but I've gotten over that." He rushed away from the topic of Bianca, on to how he grew up wandering around through both the lands of the dead and the living. He'd spent the last few years going from camp to the outside world to the Underworld, searching for more demigods to recruit.

"I'm sorry I couldn't tell you the truth," he finished, "but you would've thought you were absolutely insane to think up something like that. Or worse, you could have told somebody else and they could have killed you because you were a half-blood. I still tried to help out in little ways."

"Like when you beat up that kid for me. And the bracelet for my last birthday." I looked down. Sure enough, a thin silver chain was fastened around my wrist. He'd given it to me the night before my fourteenth birthday in a dream, and when I woke it was on the desk beside my bed.

"You still wear it," he said, smiling.

"'Course I do," I chuckled. "It was assurance that I wasn't completely crazy. So," I asked, looking around, my anger long gone, "are you at camp right now?"

"I think right now we're out in the woods. I was on scout patrol." He cursed, standing. "Josh is going to kill me!"

"Don't you have, like, some sort of immunity? Being the prince of the dead and all?"

He almost smiled, but still looked worried. "I think I'd better go. But I'll see you soon- you'll be to camp in a few hours." He pondered something for a moment, then frowned. "Um, we should probably not make it obvious that we know each other. I mean, we can't exactly hide it completely, but it might freak people out."

"How do we know each other, anyway? Did you ever figure that out?" When we were little we made up impossible theories for why he showed up in my dreams, but we never came to a reasonable conclusion. Not that anything today was even close to reasonable.

Immediately I stood for a hug. He wrapped his arms around me like he did every night when he had to leave and I noticed that being a son of Hades, he shouldn't be warm. But he was, and he pulled away and smiled at me. "Your hair looks nice. See you."

Then he was gone, and my eyes flew open. George was looking at me. "Why are you smiling?"

I looked at my reflection in the window, which was now dark. Sure enough, I had a goofy grin on my face. I touched my hair, in a loose braid hanging to my waist. "Nothing," I murmured dreamily.

"Whatever. Well, anyway, it's a good thing you woke up now. My dad listened. We'll be at camp in a couple hours."

"Yeah," I whispered, looking at my reflection and smiling again, "I know."

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**Okay. Completely cheesy, I know. I thought I'd get farther, but I need to go to bed and this was the best place to stop. **

**Anyway, I hope everybody is having an absolutely magnificent day, and I think I'll update in a few days. I have a huge project due. **

**Thanks so much for reading! And please, please, please review! It totally makes my day that much better.**

**-natalie.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Yay! Finally got that project done, and now I'm all yours! (in the most un-creepy way, of course)**

**Thank you to all the folks who've reviewed or followed my story, and I hope you guys like this installation!**

**I hope to have another chapter by this weekend. Then I should be publishing more frequently because it's spring break after that! **

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I don't know how the whole 'Hermes, god of roads' thing worked, but it sure helped speed us up. I was thankful for the millionth time in my life that I never got car sick, because the trees and buildings whizzing by at the speed of light would've been just too much.

Jill, however, wasn't that lucky. She sat in the backseat with her head between her knees while Jack rubbed her back with a gentle hand. Every so often he would catch me watching them and glare, his piercing blue eyes startling my gaze somewhere else for a while, but my focus always went back to the two of them.

"Why's he so mad at me?" I asked Angela in a whisper.

She frowned. "Don't take it personally. He's really protective of Jill, and she risked her life to keep that thing occupied while we got you out of the house."

I looked at them again. He leaned toward her, his forehead almost touching hers in hushed conversation. Their hair mingled, exactly the same color.

"They're dating?"

"Sort of," George butted in, rolling his eyes. "We know they like each other but they won't come out with it."

So camp had its own teenage drama, too. "Who's Percy?" I asked, then bit my tongue, cursing myself inwardly.

The others' surprise was obvious on their faces. "What do you mean?"

I scrambled to come up with a suitable lie. "I overheard one of you talking about some guy named Percy. Just wondering." I shrugged, like it was no big deal.

"Percy Jackson," Angela began, her voice a little softer, "is a hero. He's saved the camp again and again, and everybody worships him like he's a god."

George leaned in and we all did too, to hear him say, "I heard that Zeus offered him immortality after the Titan war, and he rejected it!"

"Yeah," Angela said, slightly irritated but just as animated as George was by the story. "You didn't know that? He wanted to stay with his girlfriend, Annabeth Chase, you know, from Athena cabin?"

"Oh yeah, they've been an item for a while."

I leaned back in my seat. From what I heard so far, Camp Half-Blood seemed like a summer-camp version of high school. All I wanted to do was keep my family safe, and maybe be able to hang out with Nico. Actually hang out with him. Unless I was crazy, but for now I put that thought aside and decided to hope. We could eat lunch together, and go on hikes, and I could get to know the person he'd been hiding all the time he'd been an undertaker's son to me. Maybe people would gossip behind our backs. 'We all know he likes her,' they would say, 'but-'

"What are you smiling about?" George was turned almost completely around in his seat, looking into my eyes with his blue ones. His teeth were crooked but blinding white, and his red hair was a few shades brighter than mine.

"Oh, nothing," I said stupidly.

"Don't worry about camp," he said, bouncing in his seat with little-kid excitement. "It's awesome! You'll love it."

"Mm-hm."

I started to see the others' countenance change. Jack and Jill were sitting, chatting happily with their hands almost touching on the seat between them. Angela smiled a little, and even Monique drummed her fingers on the steering wheel when she took her turn to drive. If this place I was going was home to them, maybe leaving my own wouldn't be so bad.

I sat restlessly, wishing I'd brought a book or at least my iPod. But it wasn't as long of a wait as I thought it was going to be. Only half an hour later we rolled to a stop at the foot of a hill.

I jumped out almost as quickly as the others, looking up at the tall pine tree. Something glittered gold on a branch, and a scaly purple shape at the foot of the tree. Tiny twin columns of smoke rose from the shape. Oh. I thought of something Nico had said in one of his crazy stories: that his guard dog was a dragon, and I realized that technically this was true.

Together the six of us climbed the hill and when we reached the top I let out a tiny gasp. A whole world lay out in front of me. I could see a gleaming white pavilion, a rectangle of mismatched cabins, and the lake glittering in the distance. Swarms of kids moved every which way, making the place look like a human machine. The only normal-looking thing was a big house, painted white, that stood in the corner of the clearing.

This, apparently, was where we were headed. I fell into line between George and Jill, and tried not to shake with nervousness. I crossed my fingers behind my back like I always did when I was anxious, and wished I was in the kitchen doing dishes. Or better yet, at the park with Anthony. Was that really only a day ago? It seemed like an eternity.

Monique led the way into the house. It was a bit dim, and I slowed my pace until George almost bumped into me. "Hey!" he exclaimed, more surprised than annoyed.

"Sorry," I muttered, and hurried on. Soon we entered a brighter room, with a ping-pong table in the middle and about twenty to thirty people around that. Most of the individuals were teenagers, with the exception of a man in a wheelchair and another pudgy guy in a leopard print shirt. I'd always hated animal print clothing, and decided instantly not to like this man.

"That's Dionysus," George whispered behind me. I jumped before processing what he'd said.

"The god? The wine dude?" I whispered back.

"Yep."

"Oh," I began, then decided not to continue.

"What?" The boy behind me sounded amused.

"He doesn't look very- erm- godly?"

George just laughed. The sound rang out in the now silent room. I turned from George's face to all the eyes watching me, and almost wanted to turn back around and keep talking to the redhead. Instead I crossed my fingers again behind my back, hoped George didn't see it, and waited for somebody to speak.

The middle-aged man in the wheelchair rolled over to me. I breathed a sigh of relief. He looked like the one I'd most rather speak to, with a well-trimmed beard and kind eyes.

He extended his hand toward me. I reached forward to shake it, and was surprised that my hand didn't even tremble.

"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood," he said.

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**So, yep! Finally made it! I have a lot of the next scenes planned out, so I should be cranking out new chapters more often. **

**Please, please review. And thanks so much for reading! You guys are all fantastic.**

**-natalie.**


	8. Chapter 8

**So I at least got to camp! Yay! **

**I thought maybe I should clarify: there's really no set point on the Percy Jackson timeline for this story. So I'm just going to go out and say that this is set a year after the Titan War, without the whole Percy-disappearing bit. **

**So there ya go. This part is a little clunky, so I'm sorry. **

**I don't own the Percy Jackson series, but I do own a typewriter and the best dog in the world. Some credit for randomness, right?**

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"Um, yes, thank you," I stammered. He smiled kindly and wheeled himself back toward the table, gesturing for all of us to sit. I ended up with Angela on one side of my seat and a beautiful girl on the other. I watched the stranger with interest; her blond hair was up in a ponytail and her piercing grey eyes flashed in her heated discussion with a short, dark-skinned boy on her right. The smile on the boy's face said that the topic wasn't serious, though, and I watched the friendly debate with amusement.

All eyes were soon drawn to the doorway as two boys walked in. Both of them had dark hair, but that was where the similarities ended. The first guy was tall, tan, and muscular, with bright green eyes and a perfectly white smile. Everybody smiled or waved, as if eager to get his attention.

"Don't get any ideas," Angela whispered. I could hear a smile in her voice as she continued, "that's Percy's girlfriend sitting next to you."

I nodded absently, but didn't say anything. I wasn't 'getting any ideas' for two reasons: Percy was gorgeous, but he was older than me and furthermore, he was taken. Also, another boy had walked through the door, even though nobody else had given him so much as a glance.

He was still wearing the white t-shirt, though the jacket had apparently been shed in the warm late afternoon. His hair was tousled and black as night. Those brown eyes scanned the room and when he saw me he smiled sheepishly, a smile I wondered now if anybody else had ever seen. That thought made me feel warm inside.

Nico made his way over to my side of the table. Annabeth saw him and moved to make room, emptying the seat between us. Annabeth and Percy (who had immediately sat down next to Annabeth; the other boy had grinned and moved to a seat somewhere else) at least, it seemed, were on good terms with the prince of the dead.

I bit my lip as Nico pulled the chair back and sat down. It took all my willpower not to hug him, but I bumped his knee with my own and he grinned, kicking my foot. Percy's girlfriend gave us a funny look and I made myself look around instead of at my best friend.

It was obvious that the man in the wheelchair had been in the middle of something, and the meeting continued. Listening to the talk, I gathered a lot of the atmosphere. Dionysus, the god, didn't contribute at all to the conversation. Instead he sat, staring at a wine magazine from 1957. It was clear that though this guy may be the camp director, all respect was given to the man in the wheelchair, whose name I learned was Chiron. That name rang a bell, but I couldn't quite place it.

The talk consisted of a recent injury due to carelessness during one of the camp games, a mess-up in the dish duty schedule for the previous day, and the upcoming game of capture the flag. I didn't catch anything strange, except the words 'naiad' and 'satyr', and the constant use of various gods' undergarments as expletives.

"So this is sort of a normal camp after all," I whispered to Nico, my eyes still on the talking man.

"No way you could call this place normal," he replied, not even turning to look at me, and we both suppressed laughter. Not that laughter was frowned upon in this group. The people around me did seem like a big happy family, no matter how cliche it sounded. The two guys across from me grinned identically and made jokes in not-so-hushed voices. A few girls were gossipping in the corner, doing their nails and not shutting up even when Chiron asked them.

The meeting came to an end and Chiron turned to Monique. "I received your message about strange happenings. Would you please tell me what happened?"

I bit my lip. Some of the campers had trickled out after Chiron dismissed them, but over half of them lingered, chatting in the hall or still sitting at the table finishing plans or conversations. Most of these kids looked up at the sound of Chiron's voice.

Monique started to speak, but Nico cut her off. "Chiron, I don't think Kate has anything to contribute to this. I could show her around or something."

I heard someone behind me say, "wait a second, is that his girlfriend?"

"Don't think she looks a bit-alive for you, Nico?" asked a different girl.

Both Nico and I whirled around to glare, but I couldn't tell who'd made the comment and I scowled as I turned back to hear Chiron say, "of course. Show her Cabin Eleven. Thank you for offering, Mr. di Angelo."

We walked out the front door into dusky early evening. Nico led me toward the marble pavilion, his hand on my elbow. It was a charming, if a bit protective, gesture, and I leaned into him. "Thanks," I muttered.

"For what?"

"Getting me out of there. I don't think I could've explained what I did-"

Nico looked at his feet, then back up ahead. "Don't feel bad that nobody really noticed you. New kids are coming in almost a few times a week right now, and everybody's gotten used to it."

"Yeah, I don't really want to stand out anyway."

"Mm-hm."

I crossed my fingers. I hadn't thought it would be different talking to Nico in real life, but it was. In our graveyard I could tell him anything, no matter what I thought he would say. One time we didn't speak to each other for a week, but even after the worst fights we got too lonely to keep hating each other. Even those silences were more comfortable than this one. We'd never had an awkward silence between us before.

"Did you get to talk to Anthony before you left?" he asked.

"No, but I grabbed my phone and a charger."

Nico looked at me. "You'd really break camp rules to talk to your brother?" he asked.

I looked back at him, my gaze steady and my mouth shut. He chuckled. "Yeah, of course you would."

"Of course," I said, bumping him with my shoulder. There, that was better. I was a whole head shorter than him, but I didn't mind looking up.

The moment was shattered by no other than Angela, jogging over to us. I realized that we'd stopped walking and were standing in the middle of the grass like a pair of idiots.

I blushed, but Angela didn't notice. "No time to show Kate her cabin. It's time for dinner," she told Nico. I saw that even she was a bit stiff around him, and he only nodded in answer. She took off toward the pavilion, which was filling up with kids coming from all over camp.

"Come on," Nico said, and we both set off at a run. I could tell he was going slow so I could keep up- I'd never been a very fast runner, and he knew it.

"You have to sit with Cabin Eleven, since you're undetermined," Nico said between breaths on our way into the pavilion.

"Which means I haven't been claimed yet?" I guessed.

"Yeah."

"Why can't I sit with you," I whined.

He shook his head. "Camp rules," he said, shrugging with a sad look on his face. Waving, he left me and sat at a table all by himself.

I was swept up in a crowd of bustling campers. Remembering what Angela had said about Cabin Eleven being the biggest one, I followed this group through the food line and sat at the very end of the table. Pushing my food around on my plate, I looked at the empty goblet set to my right.

"You talk to it," George said, pushing into a spot next to me. I grinned at his crooked teeth, glad for anything familiar. Then I processed what he'd said. "Wait, what?"

He laughed. "Say what drink you want."

I frowned, still not sure what he meant. But I said, "a lemon San Pellegrino sounds great." And suddenly my cup filled with a fizzing clear liquid. I took a sip and was reminded of picnics with my family, collecting the little tabs to make necklaces with my sisters. It made me a little sad, but I smiled at George. "That," I said, "is awesome."

He nodded. "This place has got some perks."

I laughed and took another drink of my soda and played with my food a little more. Loud conversations buzzed around me, but all I could think about was Nico sitting alone and the Blackberry in my bag.

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**Well then. There. I was worried that Nico's character was too cheerful, but I'm making the excuse that he's known Kate longer than even Percy, so he's more comfortable around her. But that's just me- I want to know what you guys think!**

**So thanks for reading and please, please, please review! It seriously makes my day to come home from school to your feedback!**


	9. Chapter 9

**I am so sorry. I said that I would be uploading more chapters over the break, and instead I didn't put up any at all!**

**So anyway, here's the next chapter. It's a bit clunky, but I hope you enjoy it, and I promise I'll have chapters up more frequently from now on.**

**I don't own the Percy Jackson series.**

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It was nearly midnight before I could be sure everybody was asleep. Standing among soft breaths and restless shifting, I made my way to the door. Stepping over a ten-year-old with a teddy bear, I opened the door and slipped out into the night.

It was colder than I expected. I hunched my shoulders against the urge to rush back inside, and walked around behind the cabin.

In my head, I tried to justify what I was about to do. George had said that camp was the safest place for a half-blood. The boundaries kept monsters out. But Angela had also been clear about how dangerous the use of a cell phone would be. I wanted to talk to my brother, but Monique was sure everything had been 'explained' to him.

How did you 'explain' this? How did you tell what happened when a girl disappeared out of a tiny town? What would they say at my school? To all the family friends? And what was my 'mother' going to tell Anthony, Silas, or Liza? What about Emily?

What if that grey thing had come back for me, and all he had found was my family? What if he'd already killed them all? How would I know? No. I had to at least check to see if my family was okay. And it really wouldn't hurt so long as no monsters got in and nobody found out. I pressed the 'A' key and held my breath.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Tony," I said, struggling to keep my voice calm. "It's Kate."

He laughed. "Yeah, I know. I do still have your caller ID, you know. Just because you left doesn't mean we exiled you."

Just because I left? What exactly had my mother told him? "Yeah, good point," I said, and waited for him to give away more of what Mom had said.

"Yeah, well. So what's up over there?"

He knows where I am. Or at least he thinks he does. "Not much," I said vaguely, "hey, sorry for calling so late."

"What do you mean? It's nine over here. It's not like I go to bed before nine."

Crap! I'd forgotten about the time difference. "Oh, right. Forgot. Well, what's up over there?"

"Not really anything much. I mean, all of us are absolutely seething that you got to go to Kati and Josh's place without any of us, but besides that, we're fine." His tone was mostly light, but I knew that part of him wasn't joking. So there it was. My mom was smarter than I gave her credit for. Kati was Mom's sister, and she lived with her husband in Chicago. It was a bit of a long shot, me heading off to Illinois at the drop of a hat, but still much more explainable than the truth.

Anthony was still talking. "Why didn't you tell me? Why couldn't I come with you?"

"Oh, uh, it was kind of a last minute thing."

"Mm-hm. You and Mom probably planned it. But maybe I could come and join you in a few weeks?"

How long was I 'staying at Kati's'? "I don't know. I know the tickets cost a fortune."

"Yeah, I guess so." We weren't poor, but money was always a bit tight, definitely too tight to send multiple kids off to Chicago.

"Maybe you can go some other time. When I'm-back."

"Yeah, maybe."

"Um, how long did Mom say I was staying-here?"

"All summer. Honestly, it's completely unfair. You're over there having some big adventure-"

"Oh, you really have no idea," I muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing. Go on."

"You're having some big adventure while I'm stuck here babysitting the girls and doing the dishes and sorting the laundry..." he trailed off.

"And doing all the things that I do?" I prompted him with a grin in my voice.

"Well, yes."

I laughed, an almost real laugh this time. "I think you'll live. Now I should probably go. Um, Josh needs it quiet. He has a huge meeting tomorrow or something." It made me sad to be lying about hanging out with my aunt and uncle. I hadn't seen Josh or Kati in over a year, and I knew Tony missed them just as much as I did.

"Well, keep in touch," Anthony said.

"Yeah, I will," I choked out, "bye then."

"Talk to you later." The line went dead.

I stood there, my phone to my ear, for more than a few minutes. Tears swam in my eyes and threatened to spill over. I blinked, looking up at the stars and trying to dry them out. I was just about to go and sneak back into my cabin when I heard a familiar voice say, "what are you doing?"

I turned with a start. It was George. His arms were crossed and he saw the phone in my hand. I expected him to get mad, but his expression softened. "Calling your family?"

"My brother," I said stiffly, still waiting for a lecture on rule-breaking.

"Hey, chill. You have perfect reason to want to talk to them. Annabeth herself has a cell phone, but don't tell her I know that." He smiled, winking, and I nodded numbly. "Well, it's freezing. You should probably come inside." His face went serious. Here it comes. "And hey, be careful when you use that phone. You're lucky I'm the one that woke up, otherwise you'd be in serious trouble. I'm not gonna rat on you, but any one of the others might. We Hermes kids, we're not exactly the most trustworthy kids you'll ever know. Me being the exception of course."

"Of course." I cracked a grin and nodded, following him inside.

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**That chapter was pitifully short. I have no excuse except that I wrote it in half an hour because I couldn't bear not to put up something today. Anyway, please-please-please review! I swear I've never smiled so big as when you guys give feedback. The first review I got, I honestly started jumping up and down. My brother thought I was crazy.**

**I hope your springs are all going stupendously! **

**-natalie.**


	10. Chapter 10

**So sorry for not uploading as often. I honestly don't know how I'm so busy. But I should be uploading more often now because I've worked ahead. **

**Thank you so much to the new reviewers and favorite-ers and followers! Seriously, you guys are so great!**

**I own nothing.**

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The next day, sun shone through the open windows on the busiest scene I've ever seen in the morning. At my house we all woke up sluggishly, not even trying to speak in a civil tone to each other until after breakfast. Here, laughs and shouts rang out in the chilly morning air. Somebody shook my shoulder again and I looked up at George's bedhead. "C'mon, Sleeping Beauty. Get up."

I glanced at his watch and sat up slowly, muttering obscenities under my breath. "And why," I asked, gritting my teeth, "exactly, are you unceremoniously removing all happiness from my soul at such an ungodly hour?"

"Are you always this eloquent in the morning?"

"Nah, I've been wanting to say that to somebody forever. But my family loves me- so they don't rip out my cheerfulness-at seven o'clock in the morning!" Between each spurt of speech Grover burst into laughter while I pulled jeans over my shorts and rummaged through my bag in search of a t-shirt. The first one I found was midnight blue, printed with A Starry Night, Anthony's favorite painting. I'd stole it from his room to use as a pajama shirt last week. I held it to my nose. It smelled like him. I sighed and pulled the shirt over my tank top, then joined George at the door.

He glanced at my t-shirt. "Van Gogh?"

"Mm-hm," I grumbled, squinting at my suddenly-bright surroundings.

"Not a morning person?"

I glared, my tone nearly dripping with sarcasm. "Now, what would give you that impression?"

He laughed again. "C'mon. Breakfast." He set off at a run to catch up with the Hermes cabin, and I groaned, following him at a much slower pace.

Nico smiled at me on my way through the columns with my cabin, and I gave him an exaggerated glower, squinting at the bright sun. He grinned even bigger and I stuck my tongue out at him. It was a childish gesture that we'd exchanged for years. He shook his head, rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue back at me. Campers nearby shot us strange looks and the smile on my friend's face dissolved into an expression that was almost sullen. I frowned, but he wouldn't look at me. I bit my lip and turned to follow Cabin Eleven through the breakfast buffet line.

While I picked at my whole wheat bagel, I observed Nico with a new interest. When we were alone in our graveyard, there was nothing to do but talk to each other, and he was almost always cheery around me. It took me awhile to realize that I'd never seen him around other people.

Annabeth and Percy were friendly enough with the son of Hades, but all of the other campers gave him a wide berth. When I'd come to camp, I'd expected a 'Nico di Angelo fan club', and dozens of girls surrounding him at every opportunity.

What had I been thinking? That just because I thought he was so amazing, everybody else at Camp Half-Blood did, too? That since I was dazzled by his warm brown eyes, and his shaggy dark hair that every other girl swooned when he walked by? I frowned, indignant, watching a girl who looked about nine stare at Nico, as if scared he would pounce. They didn't know him. Who were they to judge?

Then I watched Nico's expression, and wondered if I'd been blind this whole time. The look he gave the girl was just short of a snarl, and she scurried away. His expression changed, almost guilty when he caught me watching him. I looked away, quick as I could, and took a bite of my bagel. It tasted too much like the food my mom used to pack in my lunch. I stood, walked over and scanned the food choices again, checking for anything with an unfamiliar taste, anything that wouldn't remind me of home. I snatched a bowl and filled it with dry Fruit Loops, told my glass to give me milk and smiled. That was better.

George sat down next to me after his chat with a girl at the end of the table. He was blushing. "Okay, so as soon as we get back we need to clean up for inspection. It's usually pretty hard for us, since we're such a big cabin. You're best off hiding your stuff under some bed."

"Okay, for a minute there I was about to compare this to military school-"

He grinned. "You kidding? This is Camp Half-Blood. We point and laugh at military school."

I laughed. Really, truly laughed for the first time since I'd arrived here. I held a hand over my mouth and gasped through giggles, tears streaming down my face. He smiled.

After inspection, George happily handed orientation duty over to Nico. He nodded solemnly and nearly ran to join his girlfriend at the archery range.

Whispers followed us on the way to the lake. Eyes turned toward us everywhere and campers frowned as if Nico walking around with another person were a rare sight.

"Why don't they like you?" I finally asked my friend.

Nico looked at me, a bit startled. "What do you mean?"

"All the other kids act like you're some kind of unpredictable animal. I mean, except Annabeth and Percy."

Nico looked at the ground. "Yeah, Annabeth and Percy are great. But then I've known them longer than any of these kids."

Nico bent down to pick at his shoelaces. "It wasn't so bad after the Titan War, when me and my dad were accepted into Olympus by Zeus himself. That was a good time. I actually had friends for a little bit. But demigods are kind of like the gods. After a while, and a year at home and everything, they just forget. Especially since they don't really want to remember that they're in debt to a son of the least favorite god. And I'm afraid I don't really help them want to get along with me."

I frowned. "No, not really."

He looked at me. "You saw that little girl, didn't you?"

I bumped his shoulder. "Yeah. I mean, you need a breath mint?"

He looked at me like I was crazy, and I blushed. "You know, um, because you kind of bit her head off- oh, never mind."

He cracked up. I glared at him, annoyed. "It sounded a lot better in my head, I'll have you know!"

Nico tried to apologize, but he never really stopped laughing until long after lunchtime.

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**So yeah. Not much, I know, but I felt like I had to write this as sort of a response to some of the suggestions/ questions that have showed up in the reviews. So tell me: good change? Bad change? Anything you'd like to see different? I'm writing this for you, after all.**

**AND NOW COMES THE PART OF THE SHOW WHERE I GET YOUR ATTENTION! Hopefully that worked. Okay, so I had this crazy idea while me and a friend were watching Aladdin (yes, I watch Disney movies on Friday nights. Don't judge.). So I just put the new chapter up, and I'd love it if you'd take a look. It's called Not What You'd Expect. Rated T because I'm still kind of paranoid, and not sure where it'll go. **

**So again, thank you! More than I could even say. Please, please, please review, and please check out the Aladdin story. It's a bit different, but I have big plans for it if anybody reads it!**

**Thanks bunches.**

**-natalie.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Let's get the disclaimer out of the way. I own nothing except my OCs, the storyline of strictly this story, and a sign that says 'GO AWAY I'M READING'. There.**

**So! Hello! How are you? You know, I don't ask that enough. **

**If you think I'm trying to get your mind off being mad at me for being lousy at posting chapters, you're right. So sorry that I haven't posted in a while. I can't really say that I've been busy, because I haven't. But I'll promise (again) that I'll be posting more often from now on. I hope. *crosses fingers in the hoping way, not the lying way***

**So anyway, let's get on with this! You guys have been posting a lot of really helpful reviews, and so I think that you (especially BlueSky509, I guess) deserve something. So I tried to incorporate a few of your wishes into this chapter, and let's hope you enjoy!**

**(Also, a bit of a sharkjump... tell me if you think it's a bit weird and I'll rewrite and take it out. I'd also like to acknowledge that I didn't pick a very good ending place, but I needed to post something. Maybe I'll even have another chapter out by tomorrow! *crosses fingers again*)**

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You know those days when you spring out of bed to a perfectly beautiful day, and everybody's in a good mood, and the world just goes your way? Yeah, me neither.

A few days after arriving at camp I stumbled to the bathroom in a t-shirt and jeans, already late for breakfast. I spotted my reflection and groaned. Overnight a few zits had popped up on my chin and I didn't have any makeup whatsoever to cover it up.

I groaned again, trying to figure out what to do with my hair. All the other girls in the cabin had made it to the dining pavilion with supermodel makeup and time to spare. I wondered, frustrated, if there was any magical demigod beauty-powers that everybody had but me.

I was cramming my hair into a braid and glaring at my reflection when one of the angry red spots disappeared.

My mouth dropped open as one by one, my skin transformed itself. Almost all my freckles were gone, leaving only a sprinkle across my nose. My skin was soft and smooth, any blemishes history.

Studying my face, I ran a hand through my hair, wondering. I almost always gave up on doing my hair and trapped it all in a braid or a ponytail, but on rare occasions my mom and I worked together to straighten it. Now I concentrated on my irritation at my hair and watched as the curls unraveled, leaving it almost twice as long as normal.

"Okay, that's creepy," I whispered to myself, staring. Then the last-chance conch horn blast echoed in the morning air, and I raced out the door and up the hill. I felt the sensation of my hair bouncing on my back, as though I'd left it curly. I shrugged and snuck into the dining pavilion with a few other Hermes stragglers.

Now, having seen many a Hollywood movie, a tiny bit of me was expecting everybody to turn around and stare, but nothing like that happened. Instead Nico frowned and George nudged me to scoot over and make room for his girlfriend.

Or, I thought nobody had noticed. A little girl a few campers down the table whispered, "is she an Aphrodite kid, you think?"

I whirled around, cheeks flaming. The Aphrodite cabin, that I'd observed, was mostly full of airheaded, pretty girls whose only concerns were flirting and fingernails. "Are you still staring?" I shot back. The little girl, dark-haired and about Liza's age, shrank back and turned to whisper to her friend in a scared tone.

"I'm worse than Nico," I muttered to myself and didn't even stand to get breakfast.

Nico walked over as soon as we finished eating. "How'd you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Your hair. I mean, it's all-" Nico made vague hand gestures that I guessed meant that my hair was straight.

"I, uh, straightened it." I shrugged and again felt more hair on my shoulders than I should have.

"You- oh. It's an illusion." Nico looked troubled. He reached a hand out and I felt a tug at my scalp.

I stared. "But you're not holding anything!" There didn't appear to be anything between his fingers, but the second tug was definitely real.

"Feel your hair," he said. I put my hand on my hair and laughed. It felt just as tangled and curly as it was this morning. I put my hand on my face and frowned that I could feel the zits I thought had vanished.

"Try making it curl again," he suggested. I frowned, picturing my hair as it'd been this morning. Suddenly my curly mane was back, in my face and blowing everywhere.

Nico muttered, "much better," but he still looked worried. "How are you able to do that? There's only one-" he broke off.

I pestered him shamelessly, but he refused to finish the thought he'd begun. "I have to go. See you at lunch or something." He was gone before I could demand he stay until he answered my question. I frowned and followed my cabin back for inspection.

For the past few days, Chiron had cut me a little slack. I'd wandered around camp talking to Nico and watching others take part in the activities. Today, however, George herded me along with half the cabin to the stables. I wrinkled my nose at the stink and stood by a little boy and another teenage girl. The girl nearly melted into giggles when Percy came out of the stables, and I rolled my eyes. But then I saw the creature that followed the son of the sea god, and my mouth dropped open for a reason besides Percy's bright green eyes.

The jet-black steed stepped out of the doorway and glanced over the campers with what seemed like an almost annoyed look. The horse whinnied and I heard a dozen 'ooo's through the crowd as two feathery wings unfurled from the horse's back. He stamped his hoof in the dirt and looked at Percy.

"Oh, c'mon, we've talked about this," Percy said. I looked around to try and find who he was talking to, then stood agape again when I realized he was addressing the winged horse. "You let one of them ride you or no extra oats tonight," he continued. "How 'bout that?"

Percy turned to speak to the rest of us. "This is a pegasus," he began. "They-" The horse whinnied again to interrupt him.

The son of Poseidon rolled his eyes. "Right. His name's Blackjack, and he says that he better be getting paid for this." Nearly all the campers laughed.

The girl next to me raised her hand. Percy's eyebrows rose, but he called on her. Her voice sounded breathy and awed. "How'd you learn to talk to horses?" She batted her eyelashes at Percy. "Blackjack is a pegasus, actually," Percy said with another and it's sort of a Poseidon thing."

"Isn't he so hot?" she whispered.

It took me a moment and a glance at her expectant expression to realize she was talking to me. "Doesn't he have a girlfriend? Isn't she, like, right there?" I pointed at Annabeth, who was standing by and watching Percy.

The girl waved her hand, as if dismissing my comment. "Detail," she said absentmindedly, "I'm Abby, by the way. In case you ever need a makeover." She gave me a look that seemed to suggest I get on my hands and knees and beg her to cover my face with an inch-thick layer of makeup.

"No thanks," I said aloud.

"What?"

"Nothing." I looked back at Percy as more pegasi came out of the stable, fifteen in all. I did a quick head count. There were thirty of us. I smiled a little. Blackjack didn't have to carry anyone, after all.

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**No! Stop! Listen! Before you review (because I know that you love me, and therefore you WILL review, because it brings happiness into my heart), I gotta say something. Whether this statement should start with 'I'm sorry' or 'don't worry' depends on you, but here it is: she's not an Aphrodite kid. That was already done, and I am acceptably original in my story ideas. So.**

**Now that that's out of the way... **

**I've started another fanfic, called 'Not What You'd Expect' about if Aladdin were a girl and Jasmine a prince, and a bit of a skewed storyline. It's a bit strange, but I'm pretty excited about it, so if you'd check it out I could be oh-so-grateful. If you review, I'd be even happier. If you follow it, I may just jump up and down like I did when I got my first review on this story.**

**Please, please, please review this and the aforementioned story, and thanks for reading!**

**-natalie.**


	12. Sorry!

**Okay. I'll make this brief.**

**I know it's been an unacceptably long time since I last updated, and you all have my sincerest apologies for that.**

**My school has been working on our spring play, and I finally got a main part, so I haven't had much extra time lately.**

**But this weekend the play (Much Ado About Nothing, for anybody who was curious) will be over! Yay! So then I PROMISE I will have another chapter up.**

**Thank you all so much for waiting so patiently.**

**-natalie.**


	13. Chapter 12

**Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, did anybody else think of The Fiddler on the Roof? No? Just me? Okay. Well anyway, here is another installment! I have been really busy, but not enough for that to be an excuse. So all I can do is apologize and thank you for sticking with me (whether you did so by favoriting, following, reviewing, or even just reading all these).**

**I do not own the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series or any of the characters. I do own my original plot and characters.**

**Trust me when I say I'm really trying to outline this story so it turns out less of a rambling mess or mediocre humor and fluff and more of an actual plot. I know this is a terrible spot to end, but I had something down and couldn't bear to go any longer without posting something.**

**(By the way, in case you think you're crazy for noticing, I did take out the tiny dialogue at the end. I didn't like it.)**

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Just a few minutes later I was mounted uneasily on a pale brown pegasus who looked at me like she was barely resisting the urge to throw me off her back. Me? I was barely resisting the urge to back out and let somebody else go.

I'm not afraid of heights at all, somehow. I have plenty of things that creep me out: deep water, sloths, the dark, and spiders (though not as much as my little brother, Silas- he hates the things). I've always been proud of the fact that heights are not on that list, until now. I haven't ridden on a horse since I was four, sitting in front of my grandpa with his hands on the reins. Now I'm not that confident in my equestrian skills to save my life, should this horse decide all of a sudden that she doesn't want me on her back.

Annabeth smiled at me. I liked her. She was cool and collected, and she didn't seem to think she was 'all that' just because she was Percy's girlfriend. "You'll be fine," she reassured me when I frowned to myself. "We're just taking you up over the trees and circling the camp until you get the hang of it. Then you can come back down."

I nodded without a word and she lifted herself onto Blackjack's back. It seems she was the only person other than Percy that the black pegasus would deign to carry.

"Just dig your heels into her sides. She knows what to do," she told me, then Blackjack lifted off the ground with a flap of his huge, feathered wings. I couldn't help uttering a low, 'wow' as Annabeth hovered, a grin on her face, waiting for me to follow.

I gulped and hesitantly gave my mount what I was sure was an inadequate heel-dig. But with a jerk and a wobble that nearly knocked me off, I felt muscles under me tense and I held on tight as she flapped her wings and the ground dropped out from underneath me with sickening speed.

Soon I was at the same level as Annabeth. She grinned expectantly, her blond hair shining in the sun as I surveyed my surroundings. The camp spread out below us, campers like tiny dolls or toy soldiers. Exhilaration rushed through me and I let out a noise that was half-gasp, half-giggle.

Annabeth saw the expression on my face and grinned. "You're flying," she said. I felt my pegasus' rough hair under my fingers, her wings jostling me with every flap, and the wind blowing in my hair. Yet despite all this I had to shake myself to be sure it was all real.

"Just lean in the direction you want to go," Annabeth said, and dug her heels into Blackjack's sides and he dove back to the ground, to get another camper started I guessed.

I bit my lip and leaned toward the water. My pegasus obediently flapped her wings and set off in that direction. Encouraged, I dug my heels into her sides a bit firmer and leaned more to the left, guiding her in a circle.

Soon I was soaring high above the camp, much higher than some of the other campers, and taking in the beautiful view of Long Island Sound. The sun shimmered on the water, almost blinding me when I looked in that direction. I felt like I could have reached out and touched the sun, or like I could fly away into forever.

Then Annabeth called over to me. "Kate, we're going down. It's time for lunch."

"Okay!" I replied, and took one last, long look at the beautiful view before heading back to the ground. I handed my pegasus's reins to Percy with a grin and let myself be caught up in the crowd of kids on their way to the dining pavilion. We all turned a corner and then Nico was beside me. "Hey," he said. "Have fun?"

I grinned at him. "It was amazing! Why didn't you come? It wasn't just Hermes kids there; you could have joined us, I think."

He shrugged. "The pegasi don't really like me," he explained.

"Why not?" Call me pushy, but I didn't see how a horse could be judges of character.

He chuckled mirthlessly. "They say I smell."

Raising one eyebrow, I laughed. "What?"

Nico's smile disappeared, and he looked down, shuffling his feet on our way into the dining pavilion. "They say I smell like death," he muttered.

I opened my mouth to say something. I'm still not sure what it was going to be, but I didn't even get to try. Nico touched my shoulder, said, "I'll talk to you later, okay?" and walked away over to his table. His hands in his pockets and not even looking back.

"Okay," I muttered to nobody, and took my seat at the overflowing Hermes table beside George and some girl whose name I'd probably been told but I didn't remember. Everybody dug into their sloppy joes and I poked at a salad, looking around at everybody chatting and eating and enjoying general chaos. Several newly claimed kids were welcomed to their new tables with friendly gestures and open seats.

Observing everything around me, I thought I noticed more buzz and excitement than usual. I racked my brain for the day of the week. Friday. That rang a bell in the back of my mind, and I frowned, trying to figure out what was happening today. I didn't have to wonder long, before some pre-teen boy shouldered his way into a seat beside me. "George," the boy said, turning to the redhead on his other side, "what team are we on for capture the flag?"

Giving me a smile, George responded, "Joey, right? We're on the blue team this week. You gonna help us win?"

The boy rolled his eyes, picking up his plate. "Duh!" he told us, and moved back to his end of the table.

"So that's what's going on," I observed to George. "I was trying to figure out why all the twelve-year-olds are acting more hyper than usual."

George laughed and took a bite of his sandwich. "Yeah. It's kind of a big thing here. All the rivalries are caused and resolved by capture the flag."

I smiled. "Who's on red team?"

He nodded toward Annabeth's table. "We tend to ally with Athena, and they hate the Ares cabin, so they're on red. I think Hephaestus is teaming up with Ares-" he started counting on his fingers, "-Nemesis, Dionysus, and I feel bad but I always forget about all the minor cabins, so I don't know about them. We're with Poseidon, which is good. Annabeth and Percy combined, plus Tyson, pretty much means victory."

"Who's Tyson?"

George grinned. "Percy's brother. Cyclops. Guy's a beast- literally. I don't know if he's here right now, but if he's not Annabeth and Percy and all of us should be enough to win."

I glanced toward Percy's table, where the son of the sea god sat alone, and tried to make my next question sound casual. "Which side is Hades on?"

"You mean Nico? He's the only one in his cabin," George explained. "Um, I think he's on red. I don't really keep track of him. Got a thing for the guy, huh?"

"Shut up," I groaned. "I was just wondering."

George gave me a look and laughed. "Yeah, sure. Whatever. But yeah, I forgot, Nico sent skeleton mice after the Apollo cabin for pulling some prank the other day. So he's on our team."

I smiled. "Okay."

George rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you totally don't like him."

"I said shut up!" I pleaded, still grinning.

"Okay, fine!" he laughed, holding his hands up in a gesture of self-defense and innocence. "But seriously," he continued in a quiet voice, "think of the children!"

"Oh gods, just quit it!" I exclaimed through a laugh, pushing him toward his girlfriend, who rolled her eyes.

All three of us laughed, and the girl beside me joined us. "Is it very dangerous?" I asked George.

"Of course it is! That's the whole point!" George cried, putting an arm around his girlfriend. I had just realized I had no idea what her name was when she held her hand toward me. "I'm Jamie," she said. "And don't worry, it's not gross with me and George in the same cabin because I'm not claimed yet."

I nodded and shook her hand, pretending to understand and making a note to ask Nico or George about it.

Jamie seemed nice. She had blond hair and almost no body fat, but wasn't quite as shallow as some of the Aphrodite girls I'd met. She and I exchanged sarcastic looks at how excited George was to use his new crossbow and fart arrows, and with their help I started to look forward to capture the flag tonight.

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**So there it is. Keep in mind please that it isn't edited at all, so I'm sorry the writing isn't like it usually is. Please, please, please (did I say please?) review and tell me anything you like, anything you'd like changed or added. All your suggestions are considered, I promise.**

**If this installment totally sucked, then I'll take your suggestions and rewrite! But I can't do anything to improve without your feedback, so please do! This is for you, after all.**

**Thank you so much for everything you guys do!**

**-natalie.**


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